Was it ‘An American in Paris’? No, this is about an American in Amsterdam. But the story has elements of a fairy tale too. Picture this; an American tourist in Amsterdam gets bored with staring at the wallpaper of his hotel room and decides to take a stroll through the famous Vondelpark where a young female singer/songwriter is just finishing the last song of her ‘open-air concert’. All he hears is the last verse of the last song. Nevertheless he is very impressed and takes a recording of the young woman home. Friends and music industry professionals listen on his request to the tape and the verdict is unanimous: ‘beautiful, and an enormous potential’. The American invites Signe Tollefsen to Los Angeles to record a number of songs in Linda Perry’s studio. Two of these recordings, You, Me & the Brewers and My Old Man are included on Signe Tollefsen’ s CoraZong debut album. You, Me & the Brewers features legendary violinist Jerry Goodman, famous for his work with The Flock and John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra. When the half-American singer moved from the UK to Holland to study music at the Amsterdam Conservatory in 2004, she also started successfully performing for a constantly increasing and, as it turns out, very loyal audiences. As a support act for established artists Signe is very much in demand too. She shared the stage with amongst others Alela Diane, Ane Brun, David Sylvian, and former Pavement member Stephen Malkmus with whom she performed in Germany and Italy. Signe’s music has already been noticed by well-known musicians such as famous Dutch chanteuse Mathilde Santing, who recorded Sweet Tears for her latest album. In 2006 Signe Tollefsen was both the winner of the Best Musician Award and got most votes from the audience at the Grote Prijs van Nederland, Holland’s most prestigious New Talent competition for Alternative Music. From the first note in It Smells of You, with a beautiful contribution on pedal steel guitar from Urban Dance Squad member René van Barneveld until the very last note of This Is It, you are listening to an extremely gifted artist. This is it, but we already want more!
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